I have Bad Bad LeRoy Brown from when I was 4. I refuse to give it up. Considering the grating quality of Franke Valley falsetto, you should consider it a blessing that 45 is longer playable. What is it "Walk like a man, sing like a girl" or whatever it is.

I have the same issue with some LPs from the 60's and 70's. I took the records and the album art, framed them individually and added snippets of other memorabilia appropriate to the time and the records content to make a collage. They look great on my office wall.

They are much like a musical-art time caplsue of my life. Ah... the memories those albums hold.

Hmmmm! Looks like I'll have to start digging through my extensive selection of 8 tracks....

PS. I am currently looking for a beta max player. I have a bunch of school projects, and video of my college band "Out of Hand", that I want to digitizeand post on my blog.

PPS. I really do have a bunch of 8 tracks, including the AC/DC album "Back In Black", where some genius decided to put the title track in a spot where it had to be split in half, right in the middle of Angus Young's solo, as the song sits between tracks 3 and 4.

Okay, since you asked, some of my favorite 45s that are heavily scratched but still sacred are "Surfin' Bird" by the Trashmen (which we found in our house when we moved there in 1965, left by the kids from the previous family); "Hey Leroy, Your Mama's Calling You" by the Jimmy Castor Bunch and "I Wanna Testify" by George Clinton group the Parliaments, later to become Parliament-Funkadelic.

Madison Man and Wickedpinto: Let me step back into my recurring role as pop-music pedant. Thinking it was by the Kingsmen (who did "Louie Louie") is an understandable mistake, but "Snoopy vs. The Red Baron" was by the Royal Guardsmen. The LP of the same name (I think) featured that song, plus its follow-ups "Return Of The Red Baron" and "Snoopy's Christmas." (I don't think I ever played the non-Snoopy-related songs on side two.) That Royal Guardsmen LP -- on Laurie Records, with cover art by Charles Schulz -- was the second album I ever owned. The first was Alvin & the Chipmunks singing Beatles songs. And both albums are still in possession, along with my 45s.

Knowing what I know now about session musicians, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Leon Russell and Duane Allman played on it.

Back in '64 and '65, I was dismissive of the Beatles, and much preferred the far more original sound of the Seasons. I was all of 8 years old, making this sweeping judgements.

I even had their single of "I've Got You Under My Skin." I remember my mother being disgusted that my first exposure to this great Cole Porter song was via this weird falsetto/heavy back-beat rendition.

I will admit the Beatles were better at psychedelia. As soon as Frankie Valli started wearing a Nehru jacket and a peace symbol amulet, it was over for the boys from Jersey.

I Can't quote, you hit the nail, though I must say, I KNEW "the kingsmen" was the wrong inferrence, but I wanted an answer, so I had one of 2 choices, leave the question open, or make an incorrect statement, cuz i REALLY wanted to rememeber, and in fact, there are numerous B sides of Snoopy Vs. The Red Barron, but I think you covered both of them, though I don't know what the order was, I DO know I had a 78 vynil, that had 4 songs, one vocal, one musical, and such, and I think that rather than musical, there was an alternativie, SPECIALY since it was a gaff song, so the song and others were manipulated to serve the proper "propaganda" of the day, I don't think it is "propaganda" I think it is motivational. I have one 45, one album, and I ALWAYS make sure to download that song (legal or illegal, if music is intellectual property? then I have EVERY right to download music that I owned in it's orginal form.)

J!

Not that many, ALL audiophiles know the history of sound, so "phonograph" is not a jab, it's a natural history, thats why it's funny. Also, there are a LOT LOT LOT of audiophiles, I'm only an amateur compared to most of the people I know/knew.

Oh, I have a turntable attached to my stereo and it can play 45s, but the 45s are all scratched up because I let my kids play them all the time on a Fisher-Price record player years ago. They are completely -- and to my eye hilariously -- scratched up. Partly, they remind me of my youth -- the Four Seasons were the first band I loved -- and partly they remind me of my own kids' childhood and how they loved things that I had loved.

A recommendation: Frankie Valli fans ought to pickup a copy of "Off Seasons: The Criminally Ignored Sides From Fankie Valli & The Four Seasons." It shows that their obscurities were often as enjoyable as their hits -- including some songs from that embarrassing Nehru jacket period. (Full disclosure: The guys who wrote the liner notes are friends of mine, but it's a delightful collection nonetheless.)

We were really lucky in Katrina because our house didn't flood. But the temperature-controlled storage unit we rent in an 1850s cotton warehouse lost its 2001 high-tech roof and everything in the unit was soaked. That included a large collection of albums, my own and a former roommate's "keep these for me" stack. The covers basically stuck to the vinyl so badly, then rotted, then got slimy...I didn't want to cope so I threw them out. It felt a litle bit liberating, but I am mad never digitized the really hard to replace stuff.

But I think I have some 45s left, as they were in a case. They include a bunch of Beatles, some Janis, and "Winchester Cathedral" and "Judy in Disguise," both of which I must have inherited from an older brother. My generation is more accurately represented by the 12" dance mix vinyl singles, none of which I was able to save. I had a wonderful version of the Staple Singers doing the Talking Heads' "Slippery People." That, I wish I'd digitized!

I haven't gotten my spine up to go back in there after initially cleaning out the nastiest stuff. At $200 bucks a month, I ought to get moving on that.

My first 45s were "We Are Family" by Sister Sledge and "Le Freak" by Chic. What I wouldn't give to still have em. There was a blizzard in Ohio in the winter of '78 and it stayed so cold for so long, instead of going out for recess, we would play music and dance. One time someone brought in "Brick House" and the teacher made us turn it off, hehe!

Wow, I just looked up to see what year they came out and it turns out they were both written by the same duo (Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, THE most successful writer/producer team of the DISCO era.)

I was going to make up a lie about the first 45 I ever bought, but decided against it because that would be lying.

The truth is I never bought a 45. When I started to get into music the cool kids I hung with said 45s were not cool, only LPs were cool, and if I bought a 45 they said they would kick me out of the cool kids club. Now I regret it because 45s are cool and the cool kids kicked me out of the club anyway because of my big hair.

Another thing I regret: All of my vinyl albums are warped and ruined from years of neglect. But my hair is no longer big, which is the upside.